"He's only a teen!"
Bill of Rights, Amendment VIII
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
CNN published an article that looked into cruel and unusual punishment for teens. The ruling of the Supreme Court against two juveniles led to a lot of questioning due to the harsh punishment. The Supreme Court ordered for the juveniles to be sent to prison for life without parole, due to them committed armed robbery. This sparked many arguments pertaining to if this was unconstitutional or not. Due to the juveniles being 16 and 17, most people think that this punishment is unfair since their age makes them not accountable for their actions. The Supreme Court didn’t even put thought to getting their sentences reduced or even giving them sympathy since they are still teenagers. A lot of people think that this was cruel and unusual since they only committed robbery and not murder.
The article about Sullivan who was tried as an adult at a young age and sentenced to life in prison for a homicide relates to the eighth amendment. This is the second person to go through this and a lot of people think this is cruel and unusual punishment. The 8th amendment says that unusual, harsh punishments shouldn’t be inflicted onto people and this is a prime example of one. The teenager, Sullivan, was able to get his sentenced reduced but for the non harmful crime he did, he shouldn’t had such an unfair punishment. The ruling that the Supreme Court came up with for this case was unconstitutional and violated the 8th amendment.
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